Woman raped and set ablaze in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur dies at Kanpur hospital; police yet to nab accused

An 18-year-old girl, who was raped and set ablaze in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur on Saturday, died of burns at Kanpur’s Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital on Thursday, PTI reported. The incident comes less than two weeks after a rape survivor, who was set ablaze by the accused in Unnao while she was on the way for the case’s hearing in Rae Bareli, died of burns at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. The Fatehpur rape survivor was battling with 90 percent burns after the two accused in the case set her on fire. Her condition deteriorated on Tuesday even though the team at the hospital worked around the clock to save her, doctors had told The Times of India. She continued to be on ventilator support and was suffering from multi-organ dysfunction. The 22-year-old accused was her distant relative, who allegedly raped and set the girl ablaze when she was alone at her house in a village under the Hussainganj Police Station, Circle Officer Kapil Dev Mishra told PTI. On hearing her cries, neighbours had rushed her to a local community health centre from where she was referred to the Kanpur hospital. On the complaint of the victim’s father, an FIR was been registered against the accused and efforts are on to arrest him, the circle officer said. The police officer said in the initial investigation, it has come out that the girl was “romantically involved” with the man and a panchayat meeting was held between their families over the matter on Friday. An understanding of marriage was also reached, he said, adding that further probe was on.